Reflections on Independence

On July 4th, people celebrate a national holiday. But how many people in the United States understand what the holiday is all about? I’m sure many do, perhaps even the majority. But I know there are those that have no clue as to its meaning.

From conversations I’ve had online with liberals, it seems that they believe that the Revolution against Britain started and ended in one day. When asked about Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense”, they respond that they’ve never heard of it, much less read it.

Our Founding Fathers were oppressed by a tyrant – King George III – and by a Parliament in which they had no representation.

Tax after tax was imposed upon the colonists. The governors of the colonies were not elected, they were appointed by the King. The colonists were allowed to vote for City and Colony Councils. These councils passed bills which were presented to the governor for his signature to make them laws. Many bills were not signed. Samuel Adams tried to get slavery outlawed in Massachusetts but the governor of that colony would not approve the legislation. Then, the fighting began, and Samuel had to give up his crusade for the blacks to be free.

Samuel and others had written extensively over the years to inform the populace of the immorality of the oppression that the King imposed on the colonists. But Independence wasn’t mentioned in depth until the year 1776; approximately a year after the fighting had begun. With the publication of Common Sense by Thomas Paine, and the writings of Samuel Adams, people began to see that reconciliation with Britain was impossible and that independence from England was the only path to follow.

What the people of colonial America wanted was freedom. Freedom to pursue their own lives without the oppression of Parliament and the King, the lack of representation in that Parliament and taxes that a country over 3,000 miles away imposed on them. It took months to communicate with the island nation and most of the time a missive from the King would require more information from the colonies. Some decisions took years to decide due to the fact that it took approximately 3 to 4 months for a ship to go from the American Colonies to Great Britain.

Upon deciding that independence was the only way to relieve the colonies of the burdens thrust upon them by England’s rulers, Thomas Jefferson was asked to write the Declaration of Independence. Thomas consented, and with the help of Samuel’s writings, he wrote one of the most concise, intelligent and specific documents the world has ever seen.

That document declared the Rights of the People under God’s Law and under Natural Law: the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Today, we live under the illusion of having freedom. We don’t. From our toilet’s water level to approved light bulbs, from nutritional information being on the packaging of our foods to a First Lady telling us we can’t have bake sales in our schools, we are ruled. We are no longer citizens; we are once more subjects, but this time, it is of a tyrannical Federal Government.

What are we going to do about it? Perhaps we’re in the minority of people in the United States of America. I read peoples’ blogs and I see Populism from many middle of the road writers who think they are expressing a conservative opinion. People see one thing as oppressive, but they don’t take the next step in critical thinking to see another person’s action as something that should not be legislated against.

We have thought crimes now. Marxism has crept into our government since the middle 1800’s through Unions as well as philosophically within our colleges and Universities. Philosophy that is taught on the higher levels of education filters down to the rest of society and people have adopted the thinking (or non-thinking) of collectivism.

On this Independence Day, of 2011 we must make a commitment to take our country back, to release the bonds of slavery from our lives and the lives of our neighbors.

We must do that first by using one of the four boxes we have to combat tyranny: the soap box, which can be used to educate our neighbors and family and which this space in the Blue Nowhere is set up to do, the ballot box, where we can cast our votes for those candidates that come closest to our own beliefs, the jury box, where we can use jury nullification to make a statement that we think the law is immoral, or not necessary, or unconstitutional.

The final box is the most serious box we have. I pray we never have to use it again. It is the ammo box.

About R. Mitchell

Rich Mitchell is the Sr. Managing Editor of Conservative Daily News. His posts may contain opinions that are his own and are not necessarily shared by Anomalous Media, CDN, staff or .. much of anyone else. Find him on twitter, facebook and google+

Conservative Daily News allows a great deal of latitude in the topics contributors choose and their approaches to the content. We believe that citizens have a voice - one that should be heard above the mass media. Readers will likely not agree with every contributor or every post, but find reasons to think about the topic and respond with comments. We value differing opinions as well as those that agree. Opinions of contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of CDN, Anomalous Media or staff. Click here if you'd like to write for CDN.